I, however, as a man am an exception to the rule: I love purple. In fact, I wear a purple hat and a purple scarf. Men leave me alone while women can't seem to keep their hands off me. That is, as long as I wear the hat and scarf.

Meade inspired me to make the new tree the color of his scarf. And to give him this advice — in case we should ever meet IRL.

Subsequently, Meade asks the guys a great question, and Curtiss gives a great answer. You'll have to go in there and find those things, but don't trip over the things Titus says he's having trouble finding.

Professor Palladian had to step back in and cool us off with this historical lecture:

The word "purple" comes to us from the Greek (via the usual circuitous route through Latin and Old English) πορφύραν, porphura, of the mollusk that produced the only bright, deep, color-fast purple dye available in the world until the mid-nineteenth century. Walk through any art museum and you'll see no bright purple color in any painting produced before then. The color to which the name "purple" referred has changed many times depending on the time period and the culture being discussed. The "Prince" sort of purple that most people think of is not the color of the purple of antiquity. The ancient purple, Tyrian purple, is more akin to the color of a fresh Welch's grape juice stain on a white cotton shirt, only much more intense. Tyrian purple is made from the fresh mucous secretion of a big sea snail that is variously known as Murex brandaris and Haustellum brandaris. It requires harvesting and killing 10,000 of these gastropods to produce one gram of the dye, hence the astronomical price and rarity of the color.

I have a sample of the dye, about 50 milligrams, which cost me nearly two hundred dollars. To put that in perspective, an extra strength Tylenol pill contains 500 milligrams of Acetaminophen alone, not counting the weight of the other ingredients.

As I said, there was no other bright, color-fast purple dye or pigment available to artists until the 19th century. The use of Tyrian purple pretty much died out by the 11th century in the West. Artists could mix purple hues by glazing blue pigments with red pigments, but as there were only three bright red pigments available to artists until the 19th century, two [1; 2] of which faded rapidly and one of which is both too opaque and too orange to actually produce a mixed purple, not many artists bothered.

What changed everything (and by extension, the world as we know it) was W.H. Perkin's discovery and production of the world's first synthetic organic dye: 3-amino-2,±9-dimethyl-5-phenyl-7-(p-tolylamino)phenazinium acetate, or Mauveine, later known as the color mauve. Perkin was, on a challenge from one of his professors, trying to synthesize quinine and failed, producing a black lump. While he was trying to clean the lump out of his flask, he discovered that a portion of the lump dissolved in alcohol and produced a bright purple. Voilà! The first aniline dye, which changed not only the world of fashion and art, but as I said before, changed the entire world. It was through Perkin's discovery and subsequent manufacture of Mauveine and the resulting proliferation of aniline dye research and industry that the first antimicrobial drugs, the sulfonamides (the early examples of which were dye-based) were invented. Not to mention Tylenol, Polyurethane and the whole synthetic chemical industry.

Not bad for a chemical that started as an accident involving a substance (aniline, phenylamine) that stinks of rotting fish. An apt smell for the chemical that was responsible for the rebirth of purple in the modern world, the olfactory memory across the millennia of those vast piles of dead, rotting mollusks that yielded the color of Emperors.

Sex, science, and art — all night long, all because of purple. And trees. You know I'm an Ann Arborist. Here in Madison.

51 comments:

I love purple ! Whenever I see purple I am reminded of being in college and my favorite sorority. Purple was their color, and I dated quite a few of the sisters. I am looking to seeing some of their purple jackets again at our reunion this June.

You left out the most interesting comment of all, by William, in which he said, among other things, that the purplish tinge of mens' nut sacs might account for most mens' aversion to purple; an interesting and plausible proposition. This got Palladian all in a dither and he charged out in defense of the beauty of purplish nut sacs.

The Horned Frogs salute your favorite color for conversation. But I assure you that no TCU graduates have ever felt compelled to die their Scrotums purple. Then again Bull Riding may cause severe bruising over at the School of Ranch Management.

In the united states military, purple is also used frequently when referencing joint operations, or military operations involving two or more services working together. "Going Purple" used to be something said to a person going to work in a Joint Assignment (like on the Joint Staff).

I'll buy a beer for anyone who goes over to Trooper York's blog today and votes for Strawberry Shortcake on the cake poll on the top right corner of his blog. Then hurry back here and resume normal operations. Thanks.

We all now love purple and will notice it everywhere. TCU graduates are also forever into Purple everthing. Just when we can no longer color code people as 7/8's white etc., the new trend is into school uniforms here in Atlanta. A Group's shared colors is always a useful acceptance tool. The PurpleTreeHouse looks like it will become this blog's nickname. Someone should design a PurpleTreeHouse Coat of Arms, complete with purple Unicorns and overbearing Trees.

Aniline dyes in older rugs and carpets are often referred to as fugitive dyes. They bleed and run and they also fade away. Doesn't matter with (relatively short lived)clothing, but if you see an old rug ca 1880-1920 with an area faded to the color of old congealed oatmeal or worse, that might be an early aniline dye. Then too, I find the synthetic colors to be too pure to be interesting. If Professor P cares to post his lecture and let us know where, he'll find at least one outside reader.

I would add that outside a purple dye that would take to clothes, the color purple was well-coveted in the ME, Asia and was inexpensive to semi-expensive in other varieties - like purple lapis lazuli and amethyst jewelry. Used in both Catholic bishops rings and Buddhist rosaries. Japanese liked breeding purple flowers. People in the Mediterranean appeared to have favored more purplish wines as healthier, and attributed health-giving qualities (correctly) to the purple gentian, iris, and black currant (which makes a strong purple juice).

Purple glass and ceramics and especially purple tiling was common. In fact, we confirm that purple clothing was rare and high status from looking at depictions on Roman, Byzantine, Arab mosaics.

The Purpler Tree is a very powerful image. Jung's primordial imagery? Pranic awakening? The symmetry suggests The Vajra. However, the intense color recalls youthful evenings imbibing herbs and listening to "In Search of the Lost Chord" from a bank of very large speakers cranked to 11.